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Welcome to the Data Center Automation Blog, where you can read the perspectives from storage management experts. This Blog provides insights into the data center automation solution, as well as technical details about specific IBM products.

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If you're writing workflows you have no doubt encountered the DCMQuery/Insert/Update functions. They rely on an archaic DCMAccess notation which can be difficult to figure out, especially for very complex queries. The main point is that you start with some known information and from that known you gather new info based on data model relationships. Certain objects have certain relationships and therefore you can link from one item to the next based on this context. Sort of like the game '7-degrees of Kevin Bacon'. Sort of. To make this... [More]

I just wanted to take a moment to spread the word about a new performance cookbook resource available from the IBM Service Management (ISM) Library. You can find it here: Tivoli Provisioning Manager Version 7.2.1.0 Performance Cookbook This cookbook is based on the latest available version of TPM 7210 and combines all the most recent performance improvements available. Performance areas discussed in the cookbook include: Functional Overview Architectural Overview Performance Overview Deployment Infrastructure Runtime Performance... [More]

Should we or shouldn't we? The typical question of the IT Manager when her/his datacenter automation software releases a new fixpack. This question stems from prior nightmares attempting to deploy fixes that were half-baked, poorly documented and delivered in haste. I'm not an 'alpha' adopter but I certainly am an early adopter. The reasoning I take into deploying a new fix or new release fixpack is that I want the newest features, I want the bugs corrected - especially if there is a specific one that I'm subscribed to, and I want the... [More]

The Olympics always bring a strong sense of competition as countries vie for top honors, fueled with nationalism and pure athletic pride on the line. In every sport there is almost always one competitor out in front, willing to wear a target on her/his back, doing the extra training and utilizing his/her resources more effectively when the challenge arises. We admire their grace, strength and success. We desire their quality. Without launching into a philosophical discussion on quality, I do want to tie the above premise into an IT model:... [More]

Proper maintenance of your Provisioning Server is necessary for smooth data center management operations. Without following basic guidelines for disk management and resource handling you can find yourself unable to perform necessary provisioning actions when the time comes. The key aspect for TPM datacenter performance is the database connection. We do most of our testing and performance baselines using IBM DB2 and as such most of our recommendations are made towards configuring the DB2 management server appropriately. A few key items to... [More]

Starting from October 14th, Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment and Tivoli Provisioning Manager for Images documentation is available also in ePub format at the following links: Tivoli Provisioning Manager for OS Deployment: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v52r1/topic/com.ibm.tivoli.tpm.osd.doc/welcome/osd_pdf_epub.html Tivoli Provisioning Manager for Images: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v52r1/topic/com.ibm.tivoli.tpm.osdimg.doc/welcome/osdimg_pdf_epub.html This new format complements the... [More]

The IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager development team continues to enhance the next release (TPM v8.1) with new features and usability improvements which are targeted for future delivery. We have just announced the availability of our first BETA. If you are an existing TPM customer or stakeholder and would like to participate in the BETA and provide feedback, please contact Kimberly Mungal (akram@ca.ibm.com) to join the TPM 8.1 Early Access Program.

In How Tivoli Provisioning Manager integrated usability testing in Agile - Part 1 we talked about 3 points on how usability testing fits into the development cycle. In part 2, I will be sharing some other points to make this activity successful. 4. We tested “anything” By testing items that were not complete, we received excellent feedback about the end-to-end customer scenarios and important features that were needed. For example, we tested various designs to validate the general flow of a task from the business perspective. The feedback... [More]

The Tivoli Provisioning Manager development team has implemented usability testing in the Agile development process. By allowing customers to experience the product while in development, we are building a strong partnership with our customers to shape the solution that they need. Here are the main points that we followed to be able to fit formal usability testing into the Agile schedule. By doing so, our team greatly improved the task flow and user interaction for the features tested. 1. We created a team Our usability team is... [More]